Author's Note: I can't believe I'm really posting Part 2! It has been SUCH an undertaking, and at times I thought I'd never finish it. To those of you who have waited almost a year for this - thank you! Your encouragement has meant the world to me, and your willingness to wait this long has me in disbelief. I really, really, REALLY hope you like it! I'm worried you won't. Be honest if you don't, lol.
To those of you who are new here, welcome! If you are new-new, meaning you haven't read Part 1 yet, you may want to check it out? Honestly, you might be able to piece things together without reading Part 1 first...? I'm not sure? But in my opinion, Part 1 is better than Part 2, so there is that to consider.
A few things to note before we get started:
First and foremost, I'd like to begin by saying that I do not support J.K. Rowling's hateful, transphobic rhetoric. Trans rights are human rights. Trans women are women. I think it is a shame that Rowling has proven herself so incapable of living up to the ideals of tolerance and love that she wrote about.
Secondly, for those of you who are new here: this story is a very (very, very) slow-burn teacher-student romance. If that is not your thing, I totally get it, and kindly advise you to find another story to read. I'd be happy to recommend some Remus stories that don't have that element to them. :)
Third, this story does not follow canon. Except when it does. I kind of run roughshod over canon in this story. I follow it when it suits me; I disregard it when it does not. Some things that happen in canon still happen, but not exactly the way they happened in the book; some things happen but I change when they happen, and some things don't happen at all. I know I already mentioned this in Part 1, but at the same time, Mairead's story took place largely outside of the main events in Prisoner of Azkaban. In Part 2, Mairead's story is integrated into the events happening in the books, and so I am going to be branching off fairly significantly from canon in this one. But I'm not going to tell you where the branches are. ;-)
Fourth, a general Trigger Warning for the story as a whole: this story's main character has a disability, struggles with her mental health, and comes from a background of domestic abuse. There will be ableist language at times, as well as graphic descriptions of violence - both abusive and otherwise - and depictions of her struggling with her mental health. I will do my best to include relevant Trigger Warnings at the beginning of specific chapters. I will also be posting a semi-censored version of this story here, and an uncensored version over at Ao3. I will make note of when an uncensored version of a chapter is available over there. I want everyone to be able to engage in this story in a way that supports their mental health journey, so if you have any questions or concerns over content in the story that may be triggering to you, please reach out to me and I will do my best to help you navigate the story. Much love. 3
Fifth, as with Part 1, some chapters will have a song title at the end of them. This is not a songfic, and the characters are not singing these songs unless I specifically note that. Think of it as a soundtrack for some extra flavor. Or disregard it entirely. Up to you.
Finally, some chapter-specific notes: **TRIGGER WARNING** This chapter contains racist language. I also lift some dialogue word-for-word from Chapters 31 and 35 of Goblet of Fire.
Without further ado, here is Chapter 1 of Part 2! Chapter One: Return to HogwartsJune 23rd, 1995
Mairead was grabbed from behind.
She felt her attacker's forearms wrap around her throat, immediately constricting her flow of oxygen. She twisted her head to the left and tucked her chin. Reaching up with both hands, she thrust her left shoulder towards the throat of the man at the same time that she wrenched downwards on his wrists. She crossed her left foot behind her right foot and took a sidestep while ducking and twisting. As soon as she felt her head slip free of the man's grasp she paused to take a deep breath.
This was a mistake.
The man reached forward and grabbed hold of her shirt. With a mighty wrench, her assailant threw her to the ground.
Mairead used both feet to spin herself around on her back so that she could see her attacker. Raising her hands to shield her face, Mairead kicked out with her right foot in the direction of his knee and her left towards his groin. The man doubled up and took a step back. Mairead used her hands to pull herself backwards. Then, bracing one hand on the ground, she rolled to her right, pivoted her right leg, and jumped to her feet. She stumbled slightly and tripped backwards for a few steps before catching herself.
"Halt!"
Mairead lowered her hands from her face as the man who had presently been attacking her pointed at her feet.
"Notice how O'Keefe stumbled just now," the man said, addressing the other students standing around the edges of the exercise mats. "The method she used is certainly a quick way to get up from the ground, but we can see that it is not reliable. It is too easy to either over- or undershoot your mark."
The man now got down onto the ground in the same position Mairead had been lying in. He craned his neck up to address the class as he moved.
"Much better to roll to the right, place your right knee on the ground for stability, and pivot your left leg behind you like so. From here, you can easily push yourself to standing."
The man demonstrated how to get up from the ground, then clapped a hand onto Mairead's sweaty shoulder.
"Well done, O'Keefe," he said with a big grin. "You're getting much better at getting out of those chokeholds."
"Thanks, coach," Mairead panted.
"But don't forget - and this goes for all of you - what is the first thing you should seek to do when being attacked?"
"Create space," Mairead chorused along with the rest of the class.
"Exactly," said Coach Omer. "You must put distance between yourself and your assailant. You can catch your breath afterwards," he added with a wink at Mairead.
She smiled abashedly and nodded.
"All right, who's next?"
The lesson finished shortly afterwards. Mairead retrieved her gym bag and slung it over one shoulder while gulping from her water bottle.
"Hey, O'Keefe," Coach Omer said as she was leaving. "Can you cover the phones tomorrow? Jeff called out."
"Can't, sorry," said Mairead. "I'm going to be out of town."
"Oh, right. Your brother's graduating, right?"
Mairead nodded, feeling an uncomfortable twist of Hufflepuff guilt at the lie.
Coach Omer shrugged. "Right, I'll ask Talia. Have fun."
Mairead smiled. "Thanks."
She turned and left in a hurry, chewing guiltily on the inside of her lip as she exited out into the bright, warm, London day and inconspicuously ducked down a side alley to Disapparate.
She had been living this double life for a year now, moving as seamlessly as she could between the Magical world and the Muggle world, but the numerous lies she told to make this life possible still didn't sit well with her.
She reasoned with herself that she could hardly tell her Muggle self-defense coach that she was heading back to her magical boarding school to watch her magical best friend compete in a magical tournament for witches and wizards and that afterwards she planned to sit for a test in magical self-defense that she had spent the past year secretly training for.
No amount of combat training in the world will get me out of the headlock they'd put me in if I told them that, she told herself.
Though the constant lies and half-truths were unquestionably the things she disliked the most about her lifestyle, she wasn't about to give it up. She was happy with the life she had created for herself. She had the freedom she had always craved at Hogwarts and nothing but a handful of inconsistently-enforced laws standing between her and exploring everything she had always wanted to know about the Muggle World.
Turning on the spot, she disappeared with a small pop and reappeared in the walled front garden of a beautiful apartment building.
She casually looked around to make sure that no passing Muggle had seen a teenage girl appear out of midair. Once she was satisfied, she unlocked the door and stepped into the sun-drenched parlor of the posh, Primrose Hill apartment.
She walked through the space with its floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out on the garden she had just Apparated into and stepped into the kitchen. Dropping her gym bag unceremoniously onto one of the fancy, modern chairs surrounding the kitchen island, Mairead retrieved a glass from one of the shelves above the bar area, opened the refrigerator, and poured herself a generous glass of chocolate milk, a Muggle beverage she had discovered a few months ago. She guzzled down the drink, then poured herself another helping.
Sipping more slowly at the second glass, Mairead wandered back into the parlor. She sighed heavily and regarded the pile of books that littered the large, glass-topped coffee table. She flipped open the cover of A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions and dispassionately regarded the table of contents.
With another heavy sigh, she settled down onto the couch, careful not to drip any chocolate milk on its flawless, white surface, and scanned the contents of the book for anything she may have missed that would come in useful during her N.E.W.T. exam. She flipped to chapter seven and drew a finger down the page, halfheartedly refreshing her memory on cursed objects.
Her mind began to wander after only a few minutes. She longingly thought of the Healing textbooks that she normally read in her spare time. Even though she was not enrolled in a Healing program, she had thought it would be best to educate herself as much as she possibly could on her own, so that she could hit the ground running if she were able to get into a proper program in the fall. She had spent the past year reading as many texts on Healing as she could get her hands on. Her good friend, Gus, who had recently graduated from Healing school and was now a Trainee Healer at St. Mungo's, was very forthcoming with book and journal recommendations, and Mairead devoured everything she could on the subject. Most recently she had been enjoying reading about ancient remedies that had fallen out of fashion, many because they were so dangerous to the Healers themselves.
Only a few more days of this and then you can go back to reading them, she told herself bracingly. She took another sip from her glass and tried to focus.
Studying Defense Against the Dark Arts used to be fun. She recalled thoroughly enjoying her time spent perusing Defense textbooks and brainstorming for alternative spells that she could use in place of defensive magic. It had always seemed like a fun, complex puzzle, and it certainly appealed to her tinkering nature. She loved inventing, and finding new ways of using standard spells. She had finally mastered a magical version of Tipp-Ex, which had been a preoccupation of hers in her final year at Hogwarts. She proudly carried some around in an emptied out nail polish bottle and offered it to patrons at the Diagon Alley library, where she was employed part-time. The next mystery she was still working on solving was why some Muggle electronic devices went haywire around magic and other devices did not. Devices like the gramophone she had frequently listened to last year.
Mairead blinked and realized that her mind had wandered again. Perhaps it was the chocolate milk that was doing it. Tea had always been the beverage on hand when she had studied for her Defense O.W.L. And perhaps she should play some music. Maybe a Beatles album...
With a frustrated groan, Mairead got to her feet and took her empty glass back to the kitchen.
You know perfectly well why you enjoyed studying this stuff last year, she scolded herself. He's gone. When are you going to get over it and pull yourself together?
Huffing out a determined breath, Mairead returned to the parlor and was about to sit down again when she noticed the sweat stain she had left on the couch.
"Fuuuuuck!" she hissed to herself, darting back to the kitchen and retrieving her wand from her gym bag.
"Evanesco," she said when she returned, waving her wand over the stain on the couch cushions. "Maybe I should take a shower," she mumbled to one of the fluffy Persian cats who had wandered in at the sound of Mairead's scurrying. The cat stretched luxuriously, rump in the air, then began rubbing against Mairead's shins, mewing plaintively. Mairead reached down and scratched the beautiful cat's favorite spot at the bottom of her spine. The cat arched her back and raised her tail. Turning her head to one side, Mairead delicately sniffed at her own underarm.
"Phew," she said, pulling a face. The cat turned its squashed face up to hers and blinked its blue eyes slowly. "I really do need a shower," Mairead told the cat. "Too bad. I was so enjoying reading about the cursed whatever of some random Egyptian Pharaoh..."
Half an hour later, Mairead emerged from the bathroom, where she had taken her time enjoying a long shower and playing with the various settings on the detachable gold shower head. Toweling her hair dry, she stepped into the large attached basement bedroom to get dressed.
By the time she had finished fooling around inside the expansive walk-in closet and walked back upstairs to the main floor, she saw that dusk had fallen outside. She felt a stab of guilt at her procrastination. Now she didn't have any more time to study. The owners of this apartment would be home soon and she couldn't risk being caught with all of these textbooks.
Wrinkling her nose at the feeling of guilt, Mairead began packing up her things. When she had finished, she went from room to room and waved her wand, reciting cleaning charms as she went. Mairead was no slob, but one of the things that she had consistently been told set her apart from other house-sitters was the pristine conditions homeowners came home to find. She took a moment to appreciate watching the dishes wash and dry themselves, then topped off the food and water for the three Persian cats she had also been keeping an eye on.
With a final, appraising look around the apartment, Mairead set the house key down on top of the welcome back note she had written for the homeowners. Then, she hefted her duffel bag - which now contained all of her clothing, books, and personal effects - onto her shoulder, locked the door from the inside, and walked back out into the garden.
Mairead looked up at the sky as she walked the several blocks to where her car was parked. It was hard to believe that, this time tomorrow, she would be back at Hogwarts, preparing to watch Cedric compete in the final task of the Triwizard Tournament.
Professor Dumbledore had written to her back in February, just after the Second Task, inviting her to join Cedric's parents in attending the Third and Final Task. While Mairead's stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought of spending so much time with Cedric's parents - who had proven themselves to be ignorant and prejudiced towards Squibs, even Partial Squibs like her - she had nevertheless accepted. It had been a year since she had seen Cedric, and there was simply no way that she would turn down an opportunity to go cheer him on.
Her excitement at seeing Cedric was tempered, however, by her nervousness at attempting an N.E.W.T. in Defense Against the Dark Arts. She had done her best to prepare and had even joined a Dueling Club, the cost of which she subsidized by working there twice a month, just as she did at the Muggle Combat Arts Academy. In addition to the practical experience, she had also combed through as many textbooks as she could get her hands on through the Diagon Alley Library, even though all of the enjoyment of studying and dueling was just as conspicuously absent as a certain wizard she tried to think about as little as possible (which was to say, constantly, every single day). Despite all of this, however, she couldn't see how she could possibly pass.
Putting that thought from her mind, Mairead focused on the future. Whatever happened in her N.E.W.T., by this time next week, she would be back in London, this time staying in a very upscale house in St. John's Wood. This house belonged to a new client. Mairead had had to sign an agreement that she would follow an extensive list of rules in order to obtain this gig, including not eating on the furniture, not having male guests over, and agreeing to allow her fee to be reduced if one of the owner's prize rosebushes died on her watch. She had readily agreed, not only because she needed the gig but because she had heard that St. John's Wood was where the Abbey Road crossing was located, and that fans of The Beatles regularly flocked there to pay homage to the Muggle band. Though Mairead did not quite understand the near-obsessive preoccupation certain people felt with the band, she still took every opportunity to visit famous sites associated with them. Even though she had long ago given up hope of running into anyone in particular at these places (well, mostly), she still liked to visit them. It helped her to feel close and connected and just moderately sad and pathetic.
Mairead arrived at her car and fished around in her pocket for her car key. She pulled open the passenger side door, wincing sympathetically at the pained groan of metal-on-metal as the door swung wide, and swung her bag across to the driver's seat. She leaned down and pressed the lever that made the passenger seat bend forward, then contorted her body and pulled the door closed as she squeezed into the back seat. Reaching forward, she pulled her bag into the back with her and settled it down onto the floor.
With a wistful sigh, Mairead pulled a few snacks out of her bag. Munching on them, she reached into the hatchback boot of her car and retrieved the blankets she kept stowed there. Draping them over her lap, she rested her head against the car window and looked out on the quiet street. She wished that she could be in St. John's Wood now. Normally, she scheduled things so that she could seamlessly move from one house-sitting gig to the next with no gaps. That was not possible in this case, however, what with her mid-week trip to Hogwarts. It would have been unethical for her to accept payment for keeping an eye on a house whose owners were out of town, only to turn around and leave town herself. She had been lucky enough to find a house-sitting engagement that ended mid-week, as most homeowners came back on a weekend.
Oh, well, she thought to herself as she pulled a jumper out of her bag, scrunched it up, and tucked it under her head. At least it's a warm night.
With that thought, Mairead stretched out in the backseat of her car, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
...
Mairead's household cleaning spells came in very useful the next morning when she checked into her room at the Hog's Head. When she had made her arrangements several months earlier, she had very briefly toyed with the idea of booking a room at the Three Broomsticks, but the difference in price had turned out to be just as stark as the difference in cleanliness. Mairead had done her best to ensure the room was at least sanitary before she had to leave to get to Hogwarts on time.
It's probably for the best, she reasoned with herself. Don't want to get spoilt by all the rich people's houses.
She had expected to be hit with a rush of emotion upon seeing the castle again, but all that came into her mind as she neared the front steps was, Well, there it is.
She immediately began to worry that there was something wrong with her for not crying or bursting into song or kissing the ground or something. Her anxiety over her lack of anxiety grew as she pushed open the double doors at the top of the steps. She was actually giving serious consideration to turning around and trying her approach again to see if a second try would evoke some passion when the Deputy Headmistress walked into the Entrance Hall and spotted her.
"Miss O'Keefe," Professor McGonagall said, gracing Mairead with a rare smile. "What a pleasure. Welcome back to Hogwarts. The Champions' families are waiting in the chamber off the Great Hall."
McGonagall turned and gestured for Mairead to follow. Mairead returned the older witch's smile and followed after her, internally pleased that she had at least felt some pleasure at seeing her old Transfiguration teacher.
Professor McGonagall opened the door to the chamber and stood back, ushering Mairead inside. Mairead stood uncertainly just inside the doorway. This was the room she had waited in before taking her Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. With a sudden warm feeling, she realized that she was standing very near the place where, just before her practical Defense exam, she had been briefly pulled into the arms of...
Mairead took a deep breath and shook her head to clear it of unhelpful thoughts. She looked around and saw that there were four groups of people standing around the room. There was a dark-haired couple standing in a corner, a strikingly beautiful woman holding hands with a young girl who looked to be seven or eight standing on the other side of the room, a red-headed woman who offered her a warm smile and a familiar-looking young man standing by the cheery fireplace, and just to Mairead's left stood Mr. and Mrs. Diggory. Fixing a smile in place, Mairead took a few steps towards Cedric's parents.
"Mairead!" Amos Diggory said when he spotted her. "Hello, hello! You're well, I take it?"
"Very well, thank you, Mr. Diggory," said Mairead politely. He scanned her in an appraising manner and she immediately regretted her choice of clothing, wearing her hair loose, her decision not to wear makeup, and virtually every life choice she had ever made.
Mrs. Diggory looked sideways at her husband for a moment before smiling at Mairead. "It is so kind of you to make the trip to Hogwarts to support Cedric," she said sweetly. "I'm sure it means the world to him."
Mairead did her best to smile demurely. "I'm pleased to be here."
"What have you been doing with yourself this past year, Mairead?" asked Mr. Diggory.
"Oh, erm -"
Mairead was saved from answering by the door behind her opening. Everyone in the room turned to look as the most beautiful young woman Mairead had ever seen in her life gracefully floated into the room, followed by a tall, burly, dark-haired young man with a hooked nose, and after that, by Cedric.
Tears pricked her eyes at the sight of her best friend. He looked around and caught eyes with her. His face lit up and she let out a breathless laugh and felt herself mirroring his enormous smile.
She did her best to stay calm, figuring that at a formal event like this it wouldn't do to scream and hurl herself across the room at Cedric. But then the stunning young woman who had just walked in did just that, shrieking, "GABRIELLE! MAMAN!" as she ran across the room to embrace the young girl.
Mairead managed to stay rooted to the spot and let Cedric approach them, clutching her fingers together almost painfully in an effort to remain calm.
Cedric stopped in front of her and frowned. "What? After a year apart, this is the greeting I get?" he challenged her. With that, he closed the distance between them and swept her into a crushing embrace.
When Cedric broke the hug, he took a step back and opened his mouth to tease her again, but shut it when he saw that she was crying.
"Missed you," he said softly.
Mairead couldn't speak so she just smiled tremulously at him and let out an embarrassing honking sob.
She pulled herself together while Cedric greeted his parents. Good thing I didn't wear makeup or it'd be ruined already, she thought to herself as she wiped her eyes.
She stood slightly away from the Diggorys as they caught up, content to be near Cedric and just listen to him visit with his parents. Perhaps it was residual bitterness on her part, but she felt that Mr. Diggory was being completely insufferable. He kept going on about how sure Cedric was to win. She wished he would lower his voice or maybe just stop speaking altogether when he said that Cedric would "show these foreigners how it's done." She exchanged a silent glance with Cedric and could tell he felt the same way.
"All I'm saying is, look who's in the lead," said Amos after Cedric quietly tried to defend the French and Bulgarian champions. "If you won't let the points tell the tale, then what will?"
"I'm tied for the lead, Dad," Cedric reminded his father. "And Viktor and Fleur are both excellent champions, too."
Mairead admired Cedric for standing up for his beliefs, even when it meant potentially putting a strain on his relationship with his parents.
"Where is Potter, anyway?" said Amos, ignoring his son's chiding.
Mairead looked around and saw that Harry Potter was, indeed, absent from the room. She and Cedric exchanged a confused glance.
"He was in the Great Hall when I came in here..." said Cedric slowly. He frowned as he looked over at the two red-headed people who were still waiting by the fireplace. "I'll go see if I can fetch him."
"I'll come with you!" Mairead offered, eager not to be left alone with his parents.
She stood at Cedric's shoulder as he poked his head out of the chamber and back into the Great Hall.
"Harry, come on, they're waiting for you!"
He and Mairead stood back as the famous Harry Potter walked into the room, looking thoroughly confused. He gave a wave to the little blonde girl, and then Mairead saw the young wizard's face split into a wide grin when he saw the two ginger people waiting for him. Mairead smiled slightly and turned back to Cedric's family.
She listened as Cedric told them all he knew about what that evening's task would entail.
"What time is the -" Mairead's question was cut off by Mr. Diggory, who was looking piercingly at Harry as he and his family made for the exit.
"There you are, are you?" said Mr. Diggory to Harry. She noticed that he gave Harry the same appraising once-over he had given her. "Bet you're not feeling quite so full of yourself now Cedric's caught you up on points, are you?"
"What?" asked Harry.
Mairead shot a questioning look at Cedric, but he held up a hand to her and addressed Harry instead.
"Ignore him. He's been angry ever since Rita Skeeter's article about the Triwizard Tournament - you know, when she made out you were the only Hogwarts champion."
Cedric hadn't mentioned this bit of drama to Mairead, and since a subscription to The Daily Prophet cost money and Wizarding Wireless was free, she normally got her news via the radio and had no idea who Rita Skeeter was. Regardless, Mr. Diggory did not seem content with Cedric's response.
"Didn't bother to correct her, though, did he?" he called after Harry as he and the other two people headed for the door. "Still... you'll show him, Ced. Beaten him once before, haven't you?"
Mairead watched with raised eyebrows as the red-haired woman whirled around and scolded Cedric's father. "Rita Skeeter goes out of her way to cause trouble, Amos! I would have thought you'd know that, working at the Ministry!"
Okay, love her, Mairead decided, suppressing a smile. Part of her wanted to see this woman rip Diggory a new one, but a much larger part of her hated the discomfort she could see on both Cedric's and Harry's faces. She laid a comforting hand on Cedric's arm just as Mrs. Diggory did the same to her husband. Amos shrugged and turned his back on Harry and whoever his companions were.
Mairead offered Harry a smile and a small wave as he turned to go, which he returned, though he looked more than a little put out.
Mairead, Cedric, and his parents wound up staying in the chamber for a few more minutes before Cedric offered to show them the Hufflepuff Common Room. It turned out that Mr. and Mrs. Diggory had both been in Gryffindor during their years at Hogwarts.
No wonder I can't stand the man, Mairead brooded to herself as they walked the familiar route she still knew by heart to the Hufflepuff Basement. The only Gryffindor I ever really liked was -
Mairead and Cedric showed Mr. and Mrs. Diggory around the Hufflepuff Common Room, sharing facts and tidbits about Helga Hufflepuff and other famous witches and wizards from their house. Mr. Diggory announced that he wanted to see where Cedric's Prefect meetings took place, and so Cedric somewhat reluctantly led them to the second floor meeting room.
Mairead's footsteps slowed and her mouth fell open a little as they passed a familiar office door. Letting the Diggorys go on ahead of her, Mairead lingered, staring at the closed door behind which lay the room where she had spent some of her happiest moments at Hogwarts.
Without consciously bringing it to mind, the ghost of a love song began floating through her head, and she recalled how she had moved and swayed to it, held so close to another. She remembered how he had leaned his mouth next to her ear and sung to her, the memory making a shiver pass through her frame. For an instant, her nerves remembered the way it had felt when his long fingers had curled around hers, the feeling of his hand cradling her back. She heard the way her name had sounded in his voice, the warm light in his eyes whenever he had smiled at her.
There had been times over the past year when she had just nearly convinced herself that she was over her silly, childish infatuation, when she felt that she was ready to move on with her life and put the memories behind her.
What a fool she was.
How could she believe she would forget, when she still searched for him in storm clouds, trying to find the exact shade of his eyes? How could she think she was over him, when the mere sight of a door made her heart flutter in her chest?
She would give anything she had - not that that amounted to much - for that door to open.
And then, just like that, it did.
With a tiny yip of surprise, Mairead blinked rapidly and met eyes with the man who emerged from the office. Or rather - met eye, as the man's other eye swirled and whirled, sweeping back and forth across the corridor of its own volition before coming to lock on her along with his other eye, recognition alight in both of them.
"Mairead O'Keefe," the man growled.
"Mr. Moody!" answered Mairead. She hadn't seen the man in years, but she still remembered the Auror whose scarred, grizzled appearance belied the caring, kindly way in which he had knelt down in front of a terrified, traumatized child and informed her that he would be taking her away from her father's house, that she was finally safe.
"It's been... how long has it been, now?" asked Moody.
"I think about ten years," she answered. "Are you teaching here now, sir?"
Moody grunted in a way Mairead took to be affirmative. "Didn't expect to see you here," he said, both eyes still trained on her, looking at her rather more intently than Mairead saw a reason for.
"I'm friends with Cedric Diggory," Mairead explained. "I've been invited to watch the Third Task."
"Have you now?" said Moody. Mairead couldn't be sure why, but she felt like shrinking under the wizard's gaze. He was looking at her in an almost calculating way. "Well, this is an unexpected surprise," he added after a moment. "You should come by my office later. We should catch up."
"Erm, sure," said Mairead, trying not to let her discomfort at the way he was watching her show. "That'd be grand."
She heard her name and was grateful to find that Cedric and his parents had emerged from the Prefects' meeting room.
"Ah, Mad-Eye!" Amos Diggory said heartily. "Good to see you, old boy. Staying well?"
"Tolerably," replied Moody. He trained his normal eye on Cedric, but Mairead noticed with an uncomfortable feeling in her belly that the free-moving eye stayed fixated on her as he spoke. "Good luck this evening, Diggory. May the best outcome come to pass tonight."
"Thank you, sir," said Cedric with a smile. He turned and looked questioningly at Mairead. "We were going to go down to the Quidditch stands, if -"
"Yes! I want to come!" Mairead said hastily, trying not to look too eager to get away from Moody. "Good-bye, Mister - I mean, Professor Moody."
"Remember what I said, O'Keefe," Moody replied. "Come by my office."
"Okay," she said, moving off with the Diggorys.
"Do you know him?" Cedric asked her as they walked down the stairs towards the Entrance Hall.
Mairead nodded. "Erm, yeah. We've met." She shot a quick glance at his parents, then gave Cedric a look that communicated she would tell him in private. He nodded and dropped the subject.
Her encounter with Mad-Eye Moody stayed with her for the rest of the day, an uncomfortable brick of tension in her stomach. She wasn't sure why he had unsettled her so. She had remembered coming to like the Auror during the trial proceedings for her father. His manner had been frank and matter-of-fact and he had treated her with a level of respect that she did not experience from the other simpering, wheedling Ministry officials who had treated her like a baby who had to be handled with kid gloves. She had interacted with Moody many times in the months-long process of building a case against her father, and he had never made her feel as uneasy as she now felt. The thought of spending time alone with him - especially in an office that had so very recently been a place of refuge and enjoyment - made her feel like her skin was crawling with ants. She decided that she would have to make it her job to avoid Moody for the rest of her stay at Hogwarts.
She tried to put her unsettling encounter with the retired Auror out of her mind and focused on enjoying her visit with Cedric. She found that she was mostly able to ignore Mr. Diggory's back-handed remarks. She would exchange silent, teasing looks with Cedric whenever his father said anything particularly egregious, which seemed to put Cedric at his ease.
Cho Chang, now officially Cedric's girlfriend, joined them at the Hufflepuff table for dinner that evening. Cedric had confided to Mairead his concerns that his father would say something racist to Cho, and so Mairead intended to go out of her way to be gracious to the Ravenclaw girl. Cho, however, did not look at all pleased to see Mairead, and made a show of talking about Cedric as though she wished to display how much exclusive information she had. Mairead didn't want Cedric to feel pulled in too many directions, and she certainly didn't want to cause issues in his relationship with Cho, so she let Cho and Mrs. Diggory flank Cedric, instead choosing to sit at the end of the group next to Mr. Diggory. Mercifully, Mr. Diggory seemed to be making the most of his chance to quiz Cho and ascertain her suitability for his son, and so Mairead was able to enjoy the feast - easily the best meal she'd had since graduating - in peace, content with the knowledge that at least Mr. Diggory wasn't slipping in any microaggressions.
Eventually, Professor Dumbledore rose from his seat at the High Table and announced that the Champions were due to report to the Quidditch field and that spectators could follow five minutes later. Mairead joined everyone at the Hufflepuff table in applauding Cedric as he stood. Mairead started to rise so that she could hug Cedric and wish him luck, but she was only halfway out of her seat when Cho jumped to her feet and kissed Cedric soundly. Mairead sat back down, trying not to feel sad.
Cedric's eyes found hers when he and Cho broke apart. He looked between her and Cho, looking uncomfortable. Mairead waved a hand dismissively, not wanting to put him in an awkward situation.
"Have fun," she said with a big smile. "See you after."
"Yeah," said Cedric a bit breathlessly. "See you after."
He walked off with the other three champions. Mairead watched him go and thought her heart might burst with pride.
She turned back to her dinner companions just in time to hear Mr. Diggory say to Cho, "So... Cho. Is that your real name, or is it something we Brits can't pronounce?"
Mairead sighed and closed her eyes. So much for that.
...
Mairead took her seat in the stands, anxiously craning her neck to try to get a look at Cedric. She was able to make him out by the entrance to the maze, standing next to Harry, a group of Professors, and a blonde man Mairead did not know.
Mrs. Diggory, who was sitting on her left, leaned over towards her. "Friends of yours, dear?" she asked.
Mairead looked in the direction she was pointing and jumped to her feet with a cry of delight as she saw her friends Edgar and Sophie waving and making their way towards her in the stands.
"Hey!" she called exuberantly, hugging each of them. "It's so great to see you! I've been keeping an eye out for you."
"We've been in exams all damn day," said Sophie irascibly, sweeping her dark hair out of her eyes.
"How are they going?" asked Mairead in reference to the N.E.W.T.s that both were in the midst of.
"Done!" said Edgar triumphantly.
"Speak for yourself," growled Sophie. "I've still got Defense the day after tomorrow."
"Congratulations," Mairead told Edgar with a big smile. Then, turning to Sophie, she said, "I'm going to be sitting for the exam, as well! We'll get to hang out together."
"Would your friends like to join us?" Mrs. Diggory asked politely.
"Oh, right," said Mairead, remembering herself and feeling slightly embarrassed. "Mr. and Mrs. Diggory, this is Edgar Okada and this is Sophie Rosier. They're both in their final year here at Hogwarts."
Edgar and Sophie both smiled at the Diggorys, ignoring with practiced diplomacy the way their smiles faltered at Sophie's last name.
"You do run with a certain crowd, don't you?" Mr. Diggory said to Mairead.
Mairead had had about enough. Keeping her polite mask in place, she mildly asked, "Would you prefer that we sit elsewhere? We don't want to disturb -"
"No, no, do sit with us," Mrs. Diggory said hastily, shooting a look at her husband. "We're delighted to meet you two."
Exchanging a significant look with Mairead, Edgar and Sophie sat down in the vacant seats to her right.
"Ladies and gentlemen," came a booming voice. Mairead looked around and saw that the blonde man was speaking. "The third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin!"
The man introduced the four champions. Mairead cheered loudly for Cedric and politely applauded the rest. She managed to catch Cedric's eye and waved vigorously at him, ignoring the angry look Cho sent her way.
"So," the man concluded, "on my whistle, Harry and Cedric! Three - two - one -"
He blew the whistle that was dangling around his neck, and Cedric and Harry headed into the maze as one. The crowd cheered enthusiastically as the two Hogwarts champions disappeared into the hedges. Viktor Krum was the next to enter the maze, and after about a minute, Fleur Delacour joined them.
The cheering tapered off and silence fell. Mairead blinked a few times in confusion, trying to glance subtly around at the other spectators. Finally, she couldn't bear her confusion anymore and turned to Edgar.
"Is... is that it?" she asked him. "Like - we literally just sit here and stare at the maze?"
"It would appear so," said Edgar, leaning his elbows on the back of his chair.
"But..." Mairead continued, frowning. "Erm..." She looked past Edgar at Sophie, who nodded.
"Yeah," said the Slytherin girl. "It's dumb as fuck."
"Is this what the other tasks were like?" Mairead inquired of her friends.
"Well, for the First Task we got to watch them try to get past dragons," said Edgar. "You know about that, right?"
Mairead nodded. "Cedric wrote to me," she affirmed.
"So that one was fantastic," Edgar said. He had the look on his face that he got when he was trying to be fair.
Mairead nodded, still frowning. "And the second one?"
"It was like this," said Sophie, gesturing at the maze. "Only that time we got to stare at the lake for an hour. This time we get a maze - oh, joy!"
Mairead snorted. "'Kay..."
Mairead passed the time by chatting with Edgar and Sophie. Mairead knew that Edgar and Jonathan had broken up, but at the time it had happened he hadn't wanted to share details. Now she learned that Jonathan was not out to his parents, and when Edgar had visited his home for the Quidditch World Cup, he had endured days of Jonathan talking to his parents about an invented girlfriend and referring to Edgar as his "chum." This had understandably put quite a strain on their relationship, which Jonathan had not wished to address with Edgar even after they returned to Hogwarts. Their relationship hadn't survived for very long after that.
Sophie, on the other hand, was getting fairly serious with her boyfriend, a fellow Seventh Year Slytherin. They were planning to move in together after they graduated.
"He wants to get a dog, which -" Sophie broke off with an eye roll that did nothing to fool Mairead. The girl was clearly head over heels.
There was a brief flurry of excitement around forty-five minutes into the Task. The crowd gasped and exclaimed when a jet of red sparks shot into the air from within the inner portion of the maze. Mairead watched as Hagrid and Professor McGonagall dashed into the maze. A few minutes later they emerged, Hagrid supporting a groggy-looking Viktor Krum. Hagrid helped Krum up to the medic tent, Professor McGonagall resumed her post circling the maze, and after another five minutes or so Hagrid resumed his post as well. Then, it was back to waiting.
Called by best friend duty, Mairead tried to converse with Cedric's girlfriend.
"How has your school year been, Cho?" she asked, trying to include her in their conversation about exams.
"It's been fine, thank you," said Cho stiffly, only bestowing a temporary side glance upon Mairead.
"I-it's an O.W.L. year for you, right?" asked Mairead, trying not to be thrown off by the other girl's rudeness.
"Yes."
"... Erm, which subjects are you sitting for?"
"Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology, History of Magic, Astronomy, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, and Care of Magical Creatures," Cho rattled off, sounding irritated.
"Oh, wow, quite a few... Erm, I loved Muggle Studies!" said Mairead. "Isn't Professor Burbage lovely?"
"Yeah, I guess."
The Diggorys jumped in at this point to talk about which subjects they had studied at Hogwarts, freeing Mairead to shoot a desperate look at Edgar and Sophie.
Sophie shrugged. "She's a bitch," she supplied.
Mairead rolled her eyes. "Helpful."
Edgar gave her a regretful look. "I hate to say this, but she's normally really nice," he said in a low voice.
"Great, so she just hates me," muttered Mairead.
The chattering of the crowd ebbed and flowed as the time went on. At regular intervals, the blonde announcer recounted memorable moments from the first two tasks and shared trivia about the four champions. Every so often Mairead could see the outline of Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Hagrid, or Moody as they slowly patrolled the outside of the maze. She tried to check her watch but it was too dark to read the face, even when she held the watch right up to her eyes.
When she lowered her hand and looked back at the maze, she saw that two figures had suddenly appeared on the ground at the entrance to the maze. One of the figures was clutching a shining trophy in one hand. The other hand was closed around the wrist of the second figure. Neither person was moving. Mairead half rose from her seat, and for a moment she could have sworn her heart stopped. Even in the dark she could recognize him.
The second figure was Cedric.
Without thinking, without consulting his parents or her friends or anyone, Mairead launched out of her seat and began pushing herself past the other people in the stands. She had made it most of the way out of the stands before it occurred to the crowd to panic. Once the screaming and pushing began, moving became much harder, but by that time Mairead was possessed with a terror that clutched at her heart and lent desperation to her movement. She shoved people aside shamelessly. She stepped on people's feet and didn't apologize. When she finally cleared the crowd of people and reached open ground she broke into a sprint and hared towards the maze.
She could see Professor Dumbledore turning over the figure who was clutching the trophy. She was close enough now to see that it was Harry Potter. Harry was grabbing hold of Dumbledore and speaking urgently to him.
Cedric still wasn't moving.
Cornelius Fudge reached the scene just before Mairead did, and what the Minister of Magic said stopped Mairead in her tracks as surely as if she had just crashed into a solid wall.
"My God - Diggory! Dumbledore - he's dead!"
...
Author's Note: Well... I did it. I know that a few of you were speculating on whether I would do it or not, and I did it. How are you doing? Are you okay? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
